The manufacture of counter tops is a large industry, worldwide. These top surfaces have many uses: on kitchen counters, bars, tables, bathroom applications, workshops, gardening sheds, light manufacturing—the list goes on.
An ongoing problem associated with sizing counter tops to a specific base is the difficulty in making neat and aesthetically pleasing corners, bump-outs, and cut-outs. Given the wide, formed counter tops on the market today, such turns are difficult to achieve while still maintaining a professional appearance in the finished countertop. This problem is especially acute in the case of custom-manufactured counter tops, which tend to incorporate more corners, bump-outs and cut-outs than would an off-the-shelf counter top. Thus it would be desirable to provide a counter top edge which could be easily glued to the front edge of a counter, and is readily angle-cut to follow counter top corners, bump-outs, and cut-outs.
Another problem associated with existing, mass-produced countertops is their height and width. The finished longitudinal countertop edge tends to feature a downwardly-extending lip intended to hang over the base front upper edge; the finishing veneer extends forwards across the countertop substrate upper surface (typically fiber board), and then curves downwards and backwards to meet the lip lower edge. This creates a thick, bulbous look to the countertop finished edge, which could be as much as a quarter inch thicker than the substrate itself. Thus it would be desirable to provide a counter top edge which is of the same thickness as the substrate itself.
Still another problem associated with mass-produced countertops is the sparcity of counter top edge shapes available—they tend to all have semi-circular or beveled edges. Thus, it would be desirable to provide a method and apparatus capable of producing any desired cross-sectional counter top edge shape, be it semi-circular, oval, regular or irregular polygonal, etc.
Existing Designs
A number of patents have issued for laminates adhered to substrates. U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,662,760, 4,638,843, 4,083,743, 3,096,145, 1,864,812, and 882,203 were granted to Tsuda, Sinko, Degens, Carnaut, Elmendorf, and Kelly respectively. While these patents disclosed methods of adhering laminates to substrates, they all taught flat, rigid, substantially planar laminations. Thus, these methods would not be able to bond a shaped laminate to a shaped substrate edge, which in cross-section could be semi-circular, oval, regular or irregular polygonal, etc.
Butterworth was granted U.S. Pat. No. 1,897,548 for a method of clamping and adhering to produce wood parquet-style structures. While this patent taught means to clamp variously-shaped billets of wood together in order to form a flat assembly, the resultant structure was substantially co-planar and not appropriate for use as a countertop edge.
U.S. Pat. No. 671,230 was granted Painter for a composite glutinous article and process of making same. This patent taught mixing gluten and glycerin together, and then adding body material such as cork. The resultant mixture was pressed together and heated if desired, in order to produce a sheet which exhibited water-proof characteristics as well as flexibility. While this product could be curved, it would not be appropriate for use as a countertop edge, due to its flexibility and lack of defined shape.
Thus, it would be desirable to produce a countertop edge which is easily angle-cut to accommodate countertop edges, bump-outs, and cut-outs, and is the same thickness as the countertop to which it is to be adhered.